In October 1908, the first Model T Ford rolled off the production line at Henry Ford’s Detroit plant and changed the world forever.
The Model T made motoring affordable. And, in doing so, expanded the car-buying market exponentially. Amazon’s new two-legged robot called Digit – a Model D, then – has the potential to do the same thing for robotics.
According to The Guardian, “Digit was developed by Agility Robotics, a startup based in Corvallis, Oregon, and backed by Amazon. The robot, which can walk forwards, backwards, and sideways, and can crouch – is 5ft 9in (175cm) tall and weighs 143lb (65kg). It can carry up to 35lb (16kg).”
Initially, it’s helping with simple fulfilment tasks. But has the potential to do much more. Bloomberg says, Digit can already “squat, bend and grasp items using clasps that imitate hands.”
TechCrunch claim Agility’s new Oregon factory “can produce up to 100,000 Digits a year once fully online.” And that’s just the first factory. In time, these kinds of production levels will slash unit costs, and stimulate lots of competition. Helping to integrate humanoid robot workers into the supply-chains of thousands of SMEs.
Just like the Model T, once Digit becomes affordable it is likely to become ubiquitous.
Even more so, as SME demand for robotic warehouse solutions is already high. Supply Chain Brain, quoting Gartner research says “96% of 500 supply chain leaders of companies of different sizes and across industries are using robotics or are planning to do so.”
As TechCrunch points out, “if Amazon successfully rolls out Digit at scale, suddenly everyone will want to get their hands on some humanoid workers.”
On May 26, 1927, Henry Ford watched the 15-millionth Model T roll off the assembly line in Detroit. Jeff Bezos’s 15-millionth Model D is likely to roll off Agility’s Oregon line a whole lot sooner.